


Names

by lennongirl



Category: 24
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 06, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-17
Updated: 2013-05-17
Packaged: 2017-12-15 00:28:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/843205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lennongirl/pseuds/lennongirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So many names that equal pain and suffer and headaches.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Names

**Author's Note:**

> Written in January 2007.

Names. So many names that equal pain and suffer and headaches. English names. Arabic names. Chinese names. Strange names. Familiar names.

Nina Myers. Charles Logan. Stephen Saunders. Habib Marwan. The Salazars. Victor Drazen. 

Hamri Al-Assad.

Too many years, too many corpses, too much pain.

Hamri Al-Assad. 

***

They're in a house. Jack needs fresh clothes, and he needs privacy. He finds both just a few steps down the corridor, and the first thing he does as he enters the room is to lean against the nearest wall and close his eyes.

Hamri Al-Assad.

Jack has no idea for long he's been waiting for this. To meet Assad. It was supposed to be a good moment. He was supposed to be satisfied, relieved, happy. Assad was supposed to face justice. 

But things don't always work out as planned, and in the end, what they teach you during training can turn out to be the biggest bullshit once life gets in the way.

 _He looks old_ was Jack's very first thought, _I am old_ the second. 

Assad was nothing like he'd imagined, their meeting was nothing like he'd imagined. There was a sparkle in Assad's eyes, a gleam of alert and wit and _don't fuck with me_ and Jack knew 'old' didn't fit _at all_.

His eyes.

"We have a car," Assad announces, and Jack quickly walks back to him.

***

Assad said he will remember, but Jack doesn't even want to. Instead, he wonders if he used to look the same way like Assad just did while torturing and killing an enemy. 

No, no. There is no "same way" between Hamri Al-Assad and Jack Bauer. Or is there?

They reach the car. Assad walks up to the driver's seat and Jack can tell he's used to being in charge. In another time, Jack would've been the same way. But times have changed.

 _You'll remember._

***

They don't need many words. There is work to do. 

Jack tells Assad about his plan involving a car crash, and Assad just nods and drives off. Jack needs to focus on finding another car, he _needs_ to, he can't allow himself to think about how easy working with Assad is. Too easy, almost. 

***

The President gave his okay, and Jack is okay with it, too. He glances over the pardon. 

Hamri Al-Assad, it reads.

Sometimes, names mean nothing.


End file.
